Rain Musings

Many people don't understand why I like the rain. A buddy of mine absolutely hates the rain. She hates the dreary days, the wet, the inaction of waiting for it to go away so she can go outside and get things done.

But the scent of the rain, the feel of it tapping on my skin, the cool wetness of it and the sound - especially the sound. I love to play in the rain. I love to listen to it pound on the roof. I love to watch it skate across the windows and form puddles. I love to walk out into it and turn my face up to it so that it dances across my cheeks. I love to smell it on the wind before it comes and after it goes...

And I find myself writing while I listen to the comforting sound. Rain is my muse, I've often said.

Honestly, I don't even understand why I love rain. But for some reason I find peace in it, even in the darkest, scariest thunderstorm. The rain itself is cleansing, washing away the dirt and grime of life. It is a herald of the brighter days to come.

The sun always shines the brightest after a hard rain, after all.

Creole Escape on Sale!!

Now only $.99 for this week only, you can get Creole Escape EBOOK on NOOK or Kindle! Sale ends September 22!

The Romantic Heart

       Writing the next Dice vs. DMs blog is going to hurt my romantic heart. I don't want to spoil it, but it makes me very sad to write out what happened in yesterday's game session. I don't know what I'd do in their shoes, but I have a feeling it would be something similar. 

      Does it take a tender heart to write romances? A couple weeks ago I killed off a character in a storyline and bawled my eyes out while I did it. It hurt as bad as if I had gone through a breakup and maybe it was. I get so attached to characters that it's difficult to see them leave, even more difficult to force them to leave. It's hard to know when to put down the pen and leave them alone, or pick up the pen and write something nasty into their lives. 

     But that's part of being a writer. I find that when I can't control something, I turn to my stories because I can control them. I can control how the people feel as I manipulate their lives. 

     But in the end, I want them all to be happy (except the bad guys. The bad guys should be in jail or dead). 

     Anyway, I know that if I don't finish writing the other blog today, I won't before the next game. So I'd better run do that, even though my heart breaks for the characters...one in particular...

Autographed Copies Available Soon!

I have received a lot of requests for autographed copies of Creole Escape. They will be available in early August! Shipping will depend upon where you live, so please contact me for specifics at my email or at my Facebook page.

Now Available in Paperback!

Creole Escape is now available in paperback!!

On CreateSpace:
https://www.createspace.com/3829532 

On Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Creole-Escape

Happy Fourth of July!

It's getting rather late tonight and all I want to do is write. BUT I have to be up early to be at work tomorrow morning so I thought I'd wrap up a few things before I forced myself away from the computer...

I finished the last proof of Creole Escape today and submitted one last time for approval. I am not proofing it again. As soon as it's approved by Createspace, I will order my proof, approve the online proof, and then put it up for sale! I will let you know exactly when the paperback version is available for sale!!

I have recently rewritten a couple scenes for Waking Up. They were scenes that needed to be revamped because they just didn't suit the story or just didn't seem...right! I am still shooting for a December release for Waking Up. More on that project as it develops...

I have a new blog up chronicling my RPG (Role Playing Games for you who don't speak gamer geek) group's current adventures. I get a lot of my inspiration from the group, and would like to write the stories that come out of our DM's mind. I take notes by computer every session and compiled a huge file from the last adventure that I began to convert into a coherent storyline (my notes definitely do NOT tell the whole story!) but I ended up not finishing the conversion since I was busy with other projects.

So I decided that taking the adventure piece by piece is better than trying to tackle it all at once after the adventure's complete. So far it's working great! Go on over to Dice vs DMs and see what that's all about!

As always, don't forget to like my Facebook page if you haven't already! Author Amber Manuel

Hope you had a great Fourth of July!

I have been a bit MIA on the writing front lately. Last week was an awesome time with some hilarious friends and I managed to mix in some research as well!

We went to The Myrtles Plantation for a tour and to roam the grounds for a while. The whole place is gorgeous, and of course, notoriously haunted! This was ideal to get a better idea of what furnishings would be in Deidre's house in Waking Up and how the household would have worked while the house was in the height of its glory.

Not to mention the paranormal aspect. Speaking of which, I may have caught something...
Explanation: I was using my iPhone 4, which has a central auto-focus built into it. Basically that means either the whole picture is in focus or none of it is.
The shots were snapped within 15 seconds or so of each other. I wanted a shot of the mirror without a reflection in it. Here's the first... 

 And here's the second...

Why is only half of the bottom picture in focus?? I had a photographer friend who just so happens to be an ex-ghost hunter (she ran a group out of Austin, TX before she moved) and she has never seen an iPhone camera act like this!

Is that blurred area a ghost? The anomaly certainly gives me food for thought while I continue writing Waking Up!

The Greatest Feeling

I never expected to feel this way. I have had a handful of people tell me how much they enjoyed Creole Escape and each one gives me such a high!

The whole process - writing the scenes, piecing them together, having the story critiqued and edited, getting the cover just right, getting the formatting and copyrighting sorted out - all of the building up was to the big climax I wasn't certain I would ever see: seeing my story in print. That was such a high!

And then the feedback. Even something that could be construed as negative is awesome! People are reading what I wrote, something that is purely from my mind! 

It is the greatest feeling!  

Happy Easter! to those of you who celebrate it. To those of you who don't: Happy Bunny Who Lays Eggs Day!

Just a little news: The advertisement is going in a local dance group's program, which will support my nieces and hopefully earn me more exposure. Excited about that!!

My Facebook website is really hot, going up 20 likes in a little more than two days earlier this week! I am sending off autographed copies of the cover like crazy - see my Facebook page for details on how to get yours! https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAmberManuel

So I've been away for a while and there's quite a bit that's happened since then! Creole Escape is now available on both Nook and Kindle! 

In other news

I have contacted Candice Bizzell, my cover art artist and she is working on the cover for my work in progress Waking Up. Set in south Louisiana (where else?) more specifically in the town of Thibodeaux, Waking Up is one woman's journey from reacting to life to taking an active part in the events unfolding around her. It is a story very close to my heart and is taking a little longer than anticipated to get just right. Sorry; no release date right now!

Regular Updates \

For more regular updates, check out my facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAmberManuel !

I got the final version of my cover art today! I am headed over to PubIt to upload everything. Hopefully Creole Escape will be up for sale by Monday!

I've been writing nearly nonstop since I got home from work. Concentrating at work was difficult with the storyline running amok in there. I managed to jot down a few notes, but not as many as I would have liked.

I'm still waiting to hear back on my cover art. It should be done by the end of the week! I can't wait!

I'm also looking into different ebook sites to sign up for. I would like to market my novel to as many places as I can. After all, not everyone goes to the same bookstore, right?

Been writing since I got home. New characters, new story arcs, new setting, etc. It's refreshing to have multiple projects to work on at once...and stressful as well! Sometimes I work on three or more different stories in one day. Other times I can't find one that fits what's coming out of my imagination.

Like today. On the drive in to work, the fog was really heavy. My commute passes a lot of wooded areas, and I could see the mist between the trees. A scene immediately formed in my mind. I got to work and jotted a few notes down so I wouldn't forget. When I finally got around to expanding on the scene, I couldn't figure out where to put it. It doesn't really fit anything I'm writing right now! lol

But never fear! I will find a proper place for the scene, or build a story around it. It all depends upon where my muses lead me.

Been a while! Loads of stuff going on in life right now. Of course there was the holiday craziness, and, to be completely honest, I had a PEBKAC moment. (PEBKAC= problem exists between keyboard and chair). I couldn't figure out how to log back in to my blog.
Fail!
So totally laughing at myself right now about that.

Anyway, today's news is: I am officially going to take the leap of self-publishing. I have signed up for PubIt by Barnes and Noble and have a very good friend working on my cover art. I look to have Creole Escape published as an ebook by mid-January! (happy dance!!)

So! Now that I've figured out how to get back to my blog (and bookmarked the page for when I forget again lol) I'll be on more often with updates on what's coming out and stories in the works.

Hope you had a great December holiday and a very happy New Year!